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> We ran a bot that, upon explicitly being asked to by a user, would convert a post to HTML5 video Your bot's account is gone, so there is little evidence to c

by ghani 13y ago

> We ran a bot that, upon explicitly being asked to by a user, would convert a post to HTML5 video Your bot's account is gone, so there is little evidence to cite. However, I remember how present and obnoxious it was. Promotions for MediaCrush definitely did not appear solely when a user mentioned MediaCrush. It was enough of a problem that an admin on reddit asked you to stop: http://i.imgur.com/CDykpWp.png http://i.imgur.com/CDykpWp.png > Yes, we upvoted the bot. We didn't realize it was a problem, and stopped once it was pointed out. Many other domains have been blocked from reddit for the same behavior (e.g. http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-ban-the-atlantic-phsyorg-businessweek/ http://www.dailydot.com/news/reddit-ban-the-atlantic-phsyorg... ), but you consistently portray reddit's admins as people who had it in for your site in particular, which is dishonest. > We don't remove any posts where we get negative press. Yes, you do. They cannot be found from your user page anymore, but I've personally watched you delete your comments in threads where you promote yourself and get bad press. > I've shared some choice words about a few moderators who I've had a bad experience with. However, I've qualified myself every time, providing plenty of reasons for why I feel the way I do. You've said things that are explicitly untrue about reddit's mods and admins. Mainly that they were big, bad, imgur-partial bullies. Here is the supposedly hostile, anti-user stance that moderators took towards MediaCrush: http://i.imgur.com/iuMFUOO.png http://i.imgur.com/iuMFUOO.png http://i.imgur.com/GI8MFje.png http://i.imgur.com/GI8MFje.png http://i.imgur.com/boKDi3I.png http://i.imgur.com/boKDi3I.png These quotes come from a thread that you started, when you thought that you could push around reddit's mods: http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1k6ig4/the_creators_of_mediacrush_versus_the_moderation/ http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1k6ig4/the_creat... You're the one at fault for your problems with reddit, and it is low of you to pretend reddit's mods and admins are the bad guys. > The bot was a problem during the first few days of launch. It's hard to argue that it was spam when it only worked when summoned by a user. The vote gaming argument has merit - but we did stop once we realized that it was a bad idea. The bot that you ran promoted your site obnoxiously in many subreddits, and there are plenty of accounts banned via /r/reportthespammers that do exactly the same thing. I don't feel that you can argue it was not spam. > there are numerous bots that arguably generate much more spam for competing services This is a tu-quoque, and doesn't justify you in any way.

deleted 13y ago
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sillysaurus3 13y ago
For what it's worth, I can vouch for what ghani is saying. It matches up with my memory of the events of Mediacrush on Reddit. I was actually going to compose a similar comment. That said, the way ghani is phrasing the comments is upsetting. They're very rude. There's no reason to be rude even if you're right. Also, the mods of Reddit are a huge problem. They are both the source of Reddit's strength and its greatest weakness. Having those kinds of moderators is the best solution anyone's thought of so far, but it's still horrible (at times). I'm getting the feeling that you're defending the mods so vigorously because you're either a mod or friends with one, but from the perspective of someone who just wants to see good content, they are at times the exact opposite of what Reddit needs. And since they have so much power, the few bad apples make a really big splash. But, yeah... Cmpwn may want to consider being more transparent about their aggressive promotion of Mediacrush on Reddit. For what it's worth, I think it was just a miscommunication issue. People don't understand new things, and you can't blame them for not thinking that your new service is the best thing ever. It takes time, patience, and calmness to get your message through. Dismissing hoverzoom as a non-issue was a very unfortunate decision. It was one of the most damning things you could have done. If I remember correctly, it happened before the recent hoverzoom controversy, and back then everyone on Reddit (me included) was in love with it. Dismissing the inability to link directly to the mediacrush'd gif was also not a good move. If it's impossible to link directly to it, then you have to explain what can be done in order to give users something that simulates a direct link. And, We don't remove any posts where we get negative press. It's disingenuous of you to be deleting your posts on Reddit that reflect poorly on you, and then claiming that you haven't ever done so. Here's an example: http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1k6ig4/the_creators_of_mediacrush_versus_the_moderation/cblyabf?context=1 http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1k6ig4/the_creat... I know how tempting it is to do that. I used to do it on HN. But trust me, letting your words stand and then pointing out what you've learned since then is way better than trying to censor yourself.
- mahranch 13y ago
  > Also, the mods of Reddit are a huge problem. I hold the exact opposite opinion. And I believe reddit's growth over the last 6 years is affirmation of my opinion. Before reddit had subreddits and mods, it was a virtual clone of this website. It was roughly the same size (possibly smaller) and had similar content. Then in 2007/2008 (can't remember, it's been a while) Reddit made the big change and added the new subreddit feature, each with its own set of mods. Mods who became responsible for the growth and health of their own communities. Immediately after this change, reddit exploded in growth, and it still continues to see exponential growth today. One can easily correlate it's explosive growth directly due to subreddits and their mods. Mods who put in a lot of work and basically do the admins job for them (promotion, community outreach, fighting spam, etc). Sure, you occasionally hear about a few bad apples here and there, but those cases are rare when you factor in the thousands of mods (150+ just for the defaults) that you don't hear about. I think risk and trade-off is more than fair and if I was an admin on reddit, I'd do it every single time. Reddit's biggest asset is its mods, that I guarantee. I wonder how many man hours the mods put in collectively that reddit doesn't have to pay a dime for? I bet it's a large number. It's unfortunate because the admins don't seem to give a shit about their mods despite being the very engine that keeps their site tolerable. They've let them languish for years now with subpar mod tools. > Having those kinds of moderators is the best solution anyone's thought of so far, but it's still horrible (at times). Seems to work for wikipedia. I think it works for reddit too. It's just the users and mods over on reddit have more of a community platform so the dirty laundry is more visible. Everyone loves drama... > but from the perspective of someone who just wants to see good content, they are at times the exact opposite of what Reddit needs. Making exceptions to rules is a problem in of itself. Just because it's something "you" want to see, doesn't mean someone down the road isn't going to bring it up and throw it in your face a week, a month even years down the road. "You let this guy do that, why not me! Censorship! Censorship! Witch-hunt!" There are drawbacks to making exceptions to rules which were laid down for (usually) very good reasons. It's easy to ignore them when you're not the one who has to look and deal with the bigger picture every day.

by ghani 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

sillysaurus3 13y ago

For what it's worth, I can vouch for what ghani is saying. It matches up with my memory of the events of Mediacrush on Reddit. I was actually going to compose a similar comment. That said, the way ghani is phrasing the comments is upsetting. They're very rude. There's no reason to be rude even if you're right. Also, the mods of Reddit are a huge problem. They are both the source of Reddit's strength and its greatest weakness. Having those kinds of moderators is the best solution anyone's thought of so far, but it's still horrible (at times). I'm getting the feeling that you're defending the mods so vigorously because you're either a mod or friends with one, but from the perspective of someone who just wants to see good content, they are at times the exact opposite of what Reddit needs. And since they have so much power, the few bad apples make a really big splash. But, yeah... Cmpwn may want to consider being more transparent about their aggressive promotion of Mediacrush on Reddit. For what it's worth, I think it was just a miscommunication issue. People don't understand new things, and you can't blame them for not thinking that your new service is the best thing ever. It takes time, patience, and calmness to get your message through. Dismissing hoverzoom as a non-issue was a very unfortunate decision. It was one of the most damning things you could have done. If I remember correctly, it happened before the recent hoverzoom controversy, and back then everyone on Reddit (me included) was in love with it. Dismissing the inability to link directly to the mediacrush'd gif was also not a good move. If it's impossible to link directly to it, then you have to explain what can be done in order to give users something that simulates a direct link. And, We don't remove any posts where we get negative press. It's disingenuous of you to be deleting your posts on Reddit that reflect poorly on you, and then claiming that you haven't ever done so. Here's an example: http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1k6ig4/the_creators_of_mediacrush_versus_the_moderation/cblyabf?context=1 http://www.reddit.com/r/KarmaCourt/comments/1k6ig4/the_creat... I know how tempting it is to do that. I used to do it on HN. But trust me, letting your words stand and then pointing out what you've learned since then is way better than trying to censor yourself.

mahranch 13y ago
> Also, the mods of Reddit are a huge problem. I hold the exact opposite opinion. And I believe reddit's growth over the last 6 years is affirmation of my opinion. Before reddit had subreddits and mods, it was a virtual clone of this website. It was roughly the same size (possibly smaller) and had similar content. Then in 2007/2008 (can't remember, it's been a while) Reddit made the big change and added the new subreddit feature, each with its own set of mods. Mods who became responsible for the growth and health of their own communities. Immediately after this change, reddit exploded in growth, and it still continues to see exponential growth today. One can easily correlate it's explosive growth directly due to subreddits and their mods. Mods who put in a lot of work and basically do the admins job for them (promotion, community outreach, fighting spam, etc). Sure, you occasionally hear about a few bad apples here and there, but those cases are rare when you factor in the thousands of mods (150+ just for the defaults) that you don't hear about. I think risk and trade-off is more than fair and if I was an admin on reddit, I'd do it every single time. Reddit's biggest asset is its mods, that I guarantee. I wonder how many man hours the mods put in collectively that reddit doesn't have to pay a dime for? I bet it's a large number. It's unfortunate because the admins don't seem to give a shit about their mods despite being the very engine that keeps their site tolerable. They've let them languish for years now with subpar mod tools. > Having those kinds of moderators is the best solution anyone's thought of so far, but it's still horrible (at times). Seems to work for wikipedia. I think it works for reddit too. It's just the users and mods over on reddit have more of a community platform so the dirty laundry is more visible. Everyone loves drama... > but from the perspective of someone who just wants to see good content, they are at times the exact opposite of what Reddit needs. Making exceptions to rules is a problem in of itself. Just because it's something "you" want to see, doesn't mean someone down the road isn't going to bring it up and throw it in your face a week, a month even years down the road. "You let this guy do that, why not me! Censorship! Censorship! Witch-hunt!" There are drawbacks to making exceptions to rules which were laid down for (usually) very good reasons. It's easy to ignore them when you're not the one who has to look and deal with the bigger picture every day.